Rimbaud (who did not have a tin ear) |
It’s statements like this that drive me nuts—at least when I’m in a certain mood:
The poem [Paul Schmidt’s translation of Rimbaud’s “Le Bateau ivre”] starts with
I drifted on a river I could not control.
In the other of my most favorite translations, Samuel Beckett begins with
Downstream on impassive rivers suddenly.
Two magnificent and very different first lines, but rhythmically not that far apart.
The statement is by Norma Cole, a widely-published poet and academic who teaches at the University of San Francisco. (It’s from a blog post on Harriet entitled “Translations of Awareness,” which is filed under Harriet’s “Craft Work” category.) What worries me is the fact that Cole hears Schmidt’s regular iambic line as “not that far” from Beckett’s:
It’s a travesty to jam Beckett’s line into a metrical scheme because it is clearly non-metrical. This is not to complain about Beckett, whose line arguably reflects the sound of Rimbaud’s better than Schmidt’s. Here’s Rimbaud:
Comme je descendais des Fleuves impassibles
But I’m straying from my point, which has nothing to do with translation. It has to do with a widely-published poet and academic who can’t hear the difference between these translated lines. What, then, are we supposed to make of her whole curious post? Her supposed insights into the “craft work” of translation? When those who represent the most “advanced” among us demonstrate an ignorance of the basics, I find myself distrusting their pronouncements on more complex issues.
Whatever we make of it, the fact is that Harriet pipes in this stuff unquestioned and unedited, without providing readers an opportunity to comment. (Of course, no one edits me here—but you Birders and others have unrestricted access to the comment stream, which has often kept me honest—and more important, precise.) It’s all pretty much automatic, isn’t it—as long as one is on the “favored” list (Ms. Cole frequently publishes in Poetry Magazine and is featured in the Foundation’s podcasts as well). It is all distressingly one-way, and a disservice to the poetry community at large.
isn't Poetry that little mag<br />way-back-when<br /><br />Ezra Pound connected to it<br /><br />&<br />do tell<br /><br />what is this other "thing" Poetry Foundation ?<br />I never herd (yes "herd") of such a thing …<br /><br />how much is an annual membership ?<br /><br />and<br /><br />Joe, iz okay to make mistakes/errors<br />some of our best poets/artists<br
I should have said that she has half a dozen poems and various audio files on her author page on the Poetry Foundation Web site (http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/norma-cole). I mistook those poems for Poetry Magazine publications and regret the error.
Norma Cole has never been in Poetry magazine.
well Joe<br /> on a train from Paris to Madrid <br /> long-about 1958 on my way to Greece<br /><br /> two neat things happened:<br /><br />I was IN PUBLIC on the train reading Bellitt's translation of<br />Garcia Lorca<br /> & was arrested taken off the train and interrogated by the<br />Spanich (Spanish) Politseeuh for about four hours for openly
If the story's not true, it should be. I remember coming across a book of Belitt's own verse in a used book store in Eugene, Oregon, back in the mid 70s. It all sounded exactly like his translations of Neruda. In the same way, Paul Blackburn's translations of troubadour poetry in <i>Proensa</i> sound like Blackburn; the way Lowell's <i>Imitations</i> all sound like Lowell. The big
Reminds me of the story Robert Bly told once, about the translator Ben Belitt. According to Bly, he (Bly) encountered once a couple of young men, poets maybe, college students maybe — after reading (at least some of) Belitt's translations of Neruda, the two men, who lived in California, got in a car and drove across country to the home of Ben Belitt in Connecticut. (This would have been
"Problem is, one learns enough to be dangerous…."<br /><br />Well said, Joseph!
The Waldrops, yes! But I don't have a leg to stand on, really. What translation I do is just for myself and for fun, for my "continuing education." I read somewhere about a student of William Arrowsmith's who recalled the great Classics professor expressing bemusement that everyone who claimed an interest in a poet didn't learn the original language. Problem is, one learns
Yes, Ed,<br /><br />of course, the Waldrops (compared with whom Eshleman's an amateur)<br /><br />Rosmarie's translations superb!
it's too damn easy to translate some-one-else's<br />very difficult writing in (my) own lang<br />witch<br /><br />as soon as my snakes turn into octopusis<br />I'll get my words/tentacles around that Housai<br />image (shunga)<br /><br />which wiwill be ample preparation for tackling<br />the literal….<br /><br />no less<br /><br />my vote to do an adequate "Rimbaud" ?
Joseph,<br /><br />I think Eshleman could pull if off. I've seen some of his Césaire's translations at Claudia's blog: pretty impressive work.
"go with the flow" is pure Rimbaud! Why not work up the whole poem? Rimbaud has been so often scholarfied that a real poet's ear and heart are badly needed….
well<br />THEY didn't as me !<br /><br />I hear its as:<br /><br /> I go with the flow of impossible Fleuves<br /><br />no wonder I'm ignored by Harriet